1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



137a 



Woe onto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that 

 puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken 

 also.— Hab. 3: ib. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE ENE.MY WE .\RE 

 FIGHTING. 



Some months ago, learning that the Chica- 

 go Record-Herald had spent about a (|uarter 

 of a million of dollars in equipping Wellman 

 on a voj^age to the North Pole, I su Inscribed 

 for it in order to have daily news in regard 

 to the "air-ship." As I have another daily, 

 printed nearer ^horne, I simply glanced over 

 the Record-Herald to find something about 

 the air-ship. Of course, my eye incidentally 

 struck on other items, and I pretty soon de- 

 cided the Record-Herald was not particular- 

 ly a temperance paper. Along about the 

 first of August an item of news with big 

 headlines almost took me off my feet (figura- 

 tively, you know), and it was not about the 

 air-ship either. I am sorry I did not pre- 

 serve the headings. I clipped out the article 

 and hustled it off to competent friends of 

 temperance, demanding that the truth be 

 speedily brought to light. Here is a part of 

 the clipping from the Record-Herald that 

 shook me up so badly: 



Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 6. — Drifting toward bank- 

 ruptcy at the rate of $3000 a day, $21,000 a week, or 

 $109,500 a year, is the fate of Kansas City, Kan., a 

 commonwealth of S.^.ikk) people, and the largest city in 

 the Sunflower State. This condition has been brought 

 about by the enforcement of the prohibition law after 

 the appointment of Assistant Attorney-General Trick- 

 ett some months ago. 



Of course, I knew something of the way 

 Gen. Trickett had been putting on the lid in 

 Kansas City; but the idea that enfon-ing the 

 law was going to produce bankruptcy at 

 such a rate was astounding. Let us now 

 read some more of that wonderful news item 

 from the Recoi'd-Herald: 



Previous to Mr. Trickett's appointment no other 

 city in Kansas enjoyed such prosperity as Kansas 

 City. The police, fire, street, and other departments 

 compared favorably with a city twice its size. Now 

 the police force has been cut in two, the fire depart- 

 ment reduced, and the street department practically 

 abolished. And that is not the worst. At present, 

 employees of the city find themselves unable to cash 

 their pay-checks. 



There are some funny things about this 

 piece of news ( ? ) and you want to read it 

 carefully. No doubt that Kansas City here- 

 tofore has had an enormous police force — a 

 police force that would compare well with 

 other cities of twice the size as stated above: 

 but I do not think I ever before heard of a 

 city's prosperity being weighed by the size 

 of its police force. No wonder Mr. Trickett 

 cut the police force in two; and it would not 

 be at all surprising if it did also reduce the 

 number needed to run the fire department: 



but I could not well umlerstand how these 

 two items should have the effect of making 

 the city bankrupt or preventing it from pay- 

 ing its honest debts to its employees. We 

 shall have something more about this later. 

 Let us now have a little more from this 

 special news (?) item: 



•Until three months ago no effort was made to en- 

 force the prohibition law. Saloons were not licensed, 

 but each saloon-keeper paid regularly into the city 

 treasury a fine ranging from $30 to $50 a month ac- 

 cording to the size and location of his place of busi- 

 ness. Prom the 200 " joints," as they were termed, 

 the city received enough income to put it on " Easy 

 Street." 



Yes, they ai-e probably correct in their 

 statement that, until within two months, no- 

 body thought it was a possible thing to en- 

 force law and close the saloons in Kansas 

 CUty, Kan. Yet notice the cold-blooded 

 cheek with which the Record-Herald item 

 tells us that the city was kept going nicely — 

 yes, on " Easy Street" — by letting the saloons 

 go on pi'ovided they would pay the officers 

 "hush money " * to the amount of $20 to $50 

 a month according to the size. As there 

 were over 200 joints this made quite a little 

 income, and everything was lovely. I might 

 tell you, incidentally, that, besides the 200 

 saloons, there were at least another hundred 

 illegal "gambling-dens" that, when Mr. 

 Trickett "got a going," were all cleaned out. 

 No wonder halj the number of policemen 

 could "do the work." Some of you may 

 blame me for holding this Chicago daily — in 

 fact, the leading Chicago daily, it has been 

 called— responsible for communications sent 

 in. Had there been some name signed at the 

 bottom to tell who was responsible for this 

 article it might have relieved them some- 

 what. I hope the time is soon coming 

 when the reading people of our land will 

 hold the editors and publishers of all jour- 

 nals responsible for what they place in their 

 columns. 



The end of this strange story is as follows: 



With the abolishment of the joints, and the strict 

 enforcement of the prohibition law, the city is in such 

 straits that retrenchment in every department has 

 become necessary; but even with the present reduc- 

 tions a huge deficit is accumulating daily. The city 

 at present is in debt to the amount of $4, ,575,000. It 

 requires $225,000 to meet expenses, and its income 

 from all sources in only $112,000 yearly. 



Well, $4,575,000 is a big pile of money, es- 

 pecially when you are in debt that much. 

 Until 1 read these figures I had an idea that 

 the article had at least a semblance of truth 

 about it; but I could not believe it possible 

 that Kansas City, Kan., was in debt almost 

 $5,000,000, and getting deeper in debt every 



* Now, friends, we have not got to the bottom of this 

 iniciuitous business. This individual (we could hard- 

 ly call him an ofticial) who collected the hush money 

 from those illegal joints did actually obtain for the 

 city something over $io.ooo a month; but he turned 

 over only a part of it. Why should he? The whole 

 thing from beginning to end was a sort of highway 

 robbery legalized by custom, and he probably reasoned 

 that the man who did the dirty work was entitled to a 

 slice; besides, the size of this slice he could fix him- 

 self. What was to hinder or who was to hinder? And 

 yet the Record-Herald recommended this plan of do- 

 ing business. Yes, it is the fashion, or, rather, it «'«s 

 the fashion in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and a lot of 

 other large cities;but God forbid that such a "fashion" 

 should long continue in this country of onrx. 



